Thanks to Google Webmasters Discussion group

Yesterday, my blog was not found in normal searches in the Google search engine. It did not appear for either "child prodigy" or "ainan cawley" - both of which had previously returned results on the first page for over a year. Consequently, I tried to contact Google directly (no use, there, since there is no live customer service). Instead, I posted the problem on the Google Webmasters Discussion group. Surprisingly, within hours half-a-dozen people had posted their advice.

I would like to thank those who made the helpful posts and to tell them that, today, the problem has been resolved, for now. It is much appreciated.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Drama at the restaurant.

Tiarnan is a funny boy: just watching him is a form of entertainment all of its own.

On the 20th May, Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, was sat with his brothers in a malay restaurant. He duly waited with watchful eyes and eager stomach, for the food that would come. (He is little, but a big eater).

In due course, roti pratas (a traditional, circular, fried bread) arrived and were placed in front of his brothers Ainan and Fintan. (For whatever reason they are fond of this unhealthy fare).

Tiarnan looked at the empty table in front of him, then looked across at the full table in front of them, in shock. His hands came out to his sides in dismay. Then he got angry...really angry, his face reddening, the cords on his neck showing. Finally, he put his head down on the table, utterly put out to have been ignored in this way.

His mother was a little concerned to see him so upset, yet there was nothing she could do, for Tiarnan can't eat wheat - it doesn't agree with him. He knows this, of course and has never been allowed to eat roti prata. Ever is it his lot to watch his brothers eat this oddly prized food.

So, there Tiarnan lay, slumped across the table sulking. Suddenly, a pair of mischievous eyes looked sidelong from the top of his arms, to see just who was watching him. At once it was clear: it had all been a performance - Tiarnan was playing with his emotions, to make a point. He had managed to convince everyone that he meant it - until that final moment, when he could no longer resist the temptation to peek.

What a funny boy. Perhaps he should be an actor - for he is certainly showing the core skills and dispositions of one. We will see: right now, he is a most entertaining toddler to have around.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Doris Lessing on Nobel Prize Fame

Recently, Doris Lessing was bemoaning her newly won Nobel Prize fame. She opined that winning the Nobel Prize for Literature was a "disaster". She revealed that her life had become one long round of interviews and that she had ceased to write.

Now, that is her viewpoint from the present. However, I think she has overlooked something. Winning the Nobel Prize has made her much more famous than she had been. She is also 88 years old and probably near the end of her long life. To my eyes, she is thinking too much of the present and not enough of the long-term. In the long-term she will be dead - and what will remain are her books and her reputation. Winning the Nobel Prize has heightened her reputation and called attention to her work in a way she had never achieved before. History may turn more readily towards her, for having won that prize, than it would otherwise have done. She may have lost the ease of her quiet, writing life - but that loss comes at the end of a long and productive life. She has, however, gained something else: a more solid place in posterity.

No doubt, Doris Lessing is not the only Nobel Prize winner to be besieged by sudden fame. Yet, almost all Nobel Prize winners share one thing in common: they tend to be old. It takes time for a reputation to accrue. It takes time for people to notice the quality of one's work and thinking. It takes time for the Nobel committee to decide that someone is of sufficient merit to make such an award. Indeed, so much time does all of this take that many decades often pass between the work that merited an award, and the award itself. I used to think this was a bad thing. I used to think that the money that came with the award would be more useful in the early stages of a career, while the creator is still young. However, there is another side. The great fame that a Nobel Prize usually bestows is less disruptive to a career nearing its end. So, perhaps it is merciful that this most prestigious of all awards should come so late in a life. The result is that little work is lost to the ever present interviews - but that a more enduring fame is won.

So, though Doris Lessing may not understand this, at this time, her Nobel Prize is much more of a blessing than a curse. Her reputation may endure that much longer and her place in literary history be that much more secure because she was picked out, from all the world's writers, for the greatest prize of all.

There is something else Doris Lessing could do. She could always say: "no" to the interviews, go somewhere quiet, and isolated, and begin to write again. So, even if made world famous through the Nobel, the choice for peaceful solitude remains in the hands of the creator - they just have to be firm enough to make it.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Strategic thinking about social situations

Fintan, four, has a good understanding of the social world. He seems to peer into the motives of others and make judgement calls that are well-founded in an understanding of human behaviour. Sometimes, however, this leads to comic, though justified remarks.

A few days ago, Syahidah asked Fintan whom he would like to take to the cinema with him. He looked up at her and said, rather quickly: "Abang Ainan, because he doesn't eat. If I took Tiarnan, he might eat my popcorn."

He didn't get his wish, however. In the end, he went with his mother, father - and Tiarnan. Ainan was elsewhere.

He was right. Tiarnan ate his popcorn. He wasn't too put out, though - since I had got an extra large box of it, for him, just in case his prediction turned out to be correct.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Chicken Soup for a Singaporean Soul

On one of the stalls at the "market" at the Art Museum a couple of weeks ago, was a pile of Chicken Soup for the Soul, books. I duly picked them up, one by one and browsed through them. As I did so, I appraised the seller, who seemed very eager that I should buy one. She sat forward in her chair and peered closely at me.

Then, I came upon something which gave me pause. In the front of one of them was written: "To Daddy, with love...2002" It was Chicken Soup for a Father's Soul.

"How much are these?" I asked her.

"Five dollars. They are all five dollars".

So, a gift from a daughter to a father was worth only five dollars. I looked at her again. She was quite young - about 20. Thus, her Chicken Soup gift to her father had been given when she was in her early teens. It seemed to me a soulless thing to sell a gift between daughter and father, at any price, never mind five dollars.

I thought it ironic that a series of books intended to make one take a deeper look at life and its possibilities had passed her by, entirely. She had them all: Chicken Soups for teenagers, mothers, fathers, living your dreams...the lot. She had a Chicken Soup for everything. Yet, they had not taught her the value of sentiment, of memories of times past, of the gifts between child and parent. She had, it seemed, not learnt anything by reading them. Perhaps she had never read them. Perhaps she had just bought them as "things to have and to show to others that you have".

I bought one of her Chicken Soups for the Soul - though not the one for fathers, though that was perhaps the most apt. I couldn't bring myself to acquire a gift made between another man's daughter and himself: it seemed somehow intrusive. That gift should have been treasured by both as a reminder of a time past - but it wasn't. It ended up being sold for five dollars.

That market stall girl had learnt the value of money, but not the value of life. One day her father will be no more. Will she have sold off all reminders of his life and presence, by then? Will she have nothing to remember him by?

With a girl like her, I would think a gift should not be given - for what she wants is simply hard cash. No-one should need to think of something unique for her, therefore, to demonstrate their thoughtfulness - for whatever it is will be sold off in exchange for a few dollars.

I wonder how common her attitude is? Are young Singaporeans of today people of no sentiment? Is the dollar the only thing valued?

Comments please.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)